Ominous quietness of an open field

May 5th, 2024

Quietness has different levels and quantifications. I am a city boy and for me, while being at home, quietness means no shouts outside and no sudden loud engines — only a distant hum of traffic and human presence. That is all I need and all that I like for normal living and well-being. Then there is the quietness of forests where there is a constant rustling of leaves and whistling wind. I know that quietness and try to experience it as often as possible and to clear my head. Then there is another quietness I experienced recently — the quietness of an open field in a rural setting.

I stopped on the side of the road while on a mid-morning driving trip through the villages and towns that surround my hometown. I got out and stood there for a while. I could hear only birds chirping. There was wind, but there was nothing for the said wind to rustle. It was a holiday, so there was no sound of the farm machinery that accompanies being in the rural area among the farmland. That quietness quickly turned from interesting and enjoyable to oppressive. That quietness became heavy with the expectation of something about to happen. That quietness became sickly sweetly sticky in my ears. It was too much to handle. I went back to the car and drove on.

There was something else I noticed as I stood there in ominous quietness away from any signs of civilization. There was a grove of trees behind one of the fields right on the horizon. There was a path leading there from where I stood. I noticed some movement there. My eyesight is not very good, so I couldn't be sure if that was real or not. But at the same time, a feeling of dread came over me — with a clear message that I was being watched. It may have been a person there, a local person just going about business, or maybe an animal of some kind. No matter — I felt a set of eyes on me and that was not a glancing, curious gaze. It was something menacing. It was something telling me to keep moving along. The oppressive quietness was telling me the same…